Fastening fabric structure

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a fastening fabric structure, which comprises a micro-fibriform loop fabric structure and a fibriform pile fabric structure. The micro-fibriform loop fabric structure has micro-fibriform loops erected and protruded from the surface of the fabric processed with a fiber splitting treatment to form erected and loosen micro-fibriform loops on the surface of the fabric; the fibriform pile fabric structure has erected and dispersed restrain fiber bundles on the surface of the fabric to form fibriform loops processed with a shearing treatment. Because the micro-fibriform loops are loosen and protruded from the surface of the fabric, the capability of restrain the fibriform pile fabric structure can be greatly enhanced, and the restrain fiber bundles of the fibriform pile fabric structure are prevented from tangling together, thereby greatly increasing the amount of effective fastening fibers and strengthening the fastening and adhering capability of the fastening fabric structure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a fabric, especially to a fasteningfabric structure having the fastening effect similar to the traditionalVELCRO by a weaving machine.

2. Description of Related Art

VELCRO, a leading brand of hook and loop fastening fabric, as aconventional fastening or gripping fabrics can be found in our livingenvironment and widely used in garment, leather goods, shoes, diaper,helmet, etc. The major reason is that the VELCRO or other loop and hookfastening fabric are convenient in fastening.

However, there are some unsatisfied drawbacks in using VELCRO or otherloop and hook fastening fabric, for example, the VELCRO, stiff intexture, has a certain thickness and is difficult produced and directlyconnected to the fabric. Normally, it should be sewing or other ways toattach or connect the VELCRO on the articles which using said VELCRO.Therefore, if the articles using VELCRO requires to be a soft in textureor less thick than the thickness of VELCRO, due to the texture of VELCROmaterial, the VELCRO, the VELCRO is difficult to meet such requirements.

A conventional loop and hook fastener fabricated by a weaving machineincludes a loop and a hook corresponding to the loop. Take the U.S. Pat.No. 5,231,738 as an example, said patent has disclosed a mixed loop/hoopseparable fastener and as shown in FIG. 2b of said specification, theloop and the hook of the mixed loop/hoop separable fastener are providedon the same surface, and each loop has the dimension of 11 deniers andthe density is 8,760 loops per square inch; however the correspondinghook is monofilament having the dimension of 330 deniers with thedensity of 290 hooks per square inch.

Take the U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,932 as another example, said patent hasdisclosed a manufacturing method of a loop fabric of hook and loop typefastener, and as shown in FIG. 4 of said specification, the loop of thehook and loop type fastener is fabricated by monofilament having thedimension around 10 to 150 deniers and processed with a brushingtreatment.

Take the Taiwan Utility Model Publication No. 479477 as one anotherexample, said patent had disclosed thin base fabrics having loopssurface knitted by monofilament, wherein a special knitted for formingcurving floating circles is disclosed for providing a loop and hookfastening tape with thinner thickness. In view of the mentioned patents,the thickness of the VELCRO or other conventional loop and hookfastening fabric brings certain limitation and inconvenience when beingused.

Beside the above-mentioned thickness issue, there is still a problem ofunintended adherence. The reason is that the loops of conventionfastening fabrics are too large in dimension which providing theopportunity of small things to insert through or fall within the loops.Moreover, when being washed and rinsed, the hooks of the conventionalfastening fabric may damage other clothes, e.g. generating problems suchas yarn loosening or breaking. The three aforesaid patents disclosed themanufacturing method of the loop and hook fastening fabric fabricated bya weaving machine and the dimension of the components provided, and oneanother feature of the three aforesaid patents is that the hookcomponents are all thick and hard monofilament with hook-like ormushroom-like shapes.

Further, Taiwan Utility Model Patent No. M263013 (equivalent to U.S.Pat. No. 7,231,789 B2), issued to the present inventor, has discloses afastening fabric structure entitled “Snapping Fabrics”. According tothis invention, a hairiness treatment of brushing and shearing isapplied to form fibriform hook. However, employing a brushing techniqueto form fibriform hook cannot keep fibriform hook in direction, loweringthe fastening ability. Further, the fibriform hook tends to be tangledtogether, forming pilling and loosing the fastening ability.

In addition, the Taiwan Patent Publish No. 201023784, published on Jul.1, 2010, applied by the inventor of the present invention discloses anovel fastening fabric structure. The micro-fibriform loops of thefastening fabric are the micro-fiber yarn of the plain structure fabric,after the micro-fibriform loop fabric is processed with a fibersplitting treatment, the micro-fibriform loops having restrain functionare formed between the inter-knitting nodes of the yarn, as shown inFIG. 1 of said specification: after the fiber splitting process, themicro-fiber yarn of complex, textured yarn can only be separated to abundle of more and smaller micro fibers, but the length of the microfibers is not prolonged, so loosen micro-fibriform loops can not beprotruded from the surface of the fabric at the inter-knitting nodes ofthe yarn. The flat and intensive micro fibers are difficult to enablethe micro-fibriform loops to restrain the fibriform pile fabric, thusthe adherence capability is poor, especially the vertical adherenceforce.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One primary object of the present invention is to provide a fasteningfabric structure having a micro-fibriform loop fabric structure and afibriform pile fabric structure wherein the micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure has micro-fibriform loops erecting on the surface of thefabric, and erected and dispersed restrain fiber bundles are fabricatedby processing a shearing treatment to the fibriform pile fabricstructure; after a thermal treatment in an environment with suitabletemperature, the restrain fiber bundles become erected restrain fiberbundles which are more dispersed and slightly curved. As such, therestrain fiber bundles of the fibriform pile fabric structure areprevented from tangling together, thereby increasing the adhering andfastening capability of the fastening fabric structure.

For achieving the mentioned object, one solution provided by the presentinvention is to provide a fastening fabric structure, which comprises:

a micro-fibriform loop fabric structure having micro-fibriform loopserected and protruded from the surface of the fabric, themicro-fibriform loops are fabricated by complex, textured micro-fiberyarn and split thereafter to form more and smaller micro fibers, so themicro fibers are enabled to fabricate erected and loosen micro-fibriformloops on the surface of the fabric;

a fibriform pile fabric structure having erected and dispersed restrainfiber bundles on the surface of the fabric, the restrain fiber bundlesare fabricated by spun yarn or synthetic filament yarns being fabricatedto fibriform pile loops then processed with a shearing treatment;

when the fibriform pile fabric structure and the micro-fibriform loopfabric structure are in contact, the erected restrain fiber bundles arefastened and restrained by the micro-fibriform loops thereby forming anadhering and fastening effect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art byreading the following detailed description of a preferred embodimentthereof, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic partially enlarged view illustrating a knitteddouble-face loop fabric before the micro-fibriform loop fabric structurebeing processed with the fiber splitting treatment and before thefibriform loop fabric structure being processed with the shearingtreatment, according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic partially enlarged view illustrating a knitteddouble-face loop fabric after the micro-fibriform loop fabric structurebeing processed with the fiber splitting treatment and after thefibriform loop fabric structure being processed with the shearingtreatment, according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating the micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure and the fibriform pile fabric structure being fabricated ondifferent surfaces of the same woven fabric, according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure and the fibriform pile fabric structure being fabricated ondifferent locations of the same surface of the same woven fabric,according to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating the micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure and the fibriform pile fabric structure being fabricated ontwo different woven fabrics, according to the present invention;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the fastening fabric structure providedby the present invention comprises a micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure 1 and a fibriform pile fabric structure 2.

Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, which are schematic viewsillustrating the micro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 of a weftknitted fabric before and after being processed with the fiber splittingtreatment. The micro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 has erected andloosen micro-fibriform loops 11 fabricated on a surface of the fabric,such that the micro-fibriform loops 11 are equipped with a functionsimilar to the loops of a conventional VELCRO tape. In practice, themicro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 is preferably to be made ofcomplex textured micro-fiber having the dimension less than 1 denier,and the micro-fibriform loop has a height of 1 mm˜5 mm, preferably to be2 mm˜3 mm. The manufacturing method of micro fibers is a maturetechnology therefore no further illustration is provided.

As shown in FIG. 3, which is a schematic view illustrating the microfibers fabricated on a surface of a woven double-face loop fabric beingprocessed with a splitting treatment. The fabrication method of themicro fibers is to adopt two different high molecular materials forbecoming the complex fiber by complex spinning, then separating eachsingle complex fiber for obtaining more and smaller micro fibers.

As such, the micro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 of the presentinvention is fabricated on a knitted or woven fabric with themicro-fibriform loops 11 then being processed with the fiber splittingtreatment, so the micro fibers are enabled to fabricate erected andloosen micro-fibriform loops 11 on a surface of the fabric. Moreover, ifthe micro fibers contain thermal shrinking fibers, a shrinking level of20%˜40% would be generated during the heating process of fiber splittingand dyeing, such that the micro fibers after being split become moreloosened, thereby enhancing the fastening and adhering capability of thefastening fabric structure.

The texturing and fabricating means of the micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure 1 are as followings: (1) weft-knitting or warp-knitting tofabricate a knitted loop fabric; and (2) weaving to fabricate a wovenloop fabric. The fiber splitting means can be a chemical or mechanicalseparation treatment, wherein the chemical separation treatment is todissolve one of the materials through a chemical solvent and allow theother material to be remained, the mechanical separation treatment is toseparate the two different material of complex fiber through amechanical rubbing means.

Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, which are schematic viewsillustrating the fibriform pile fabric structure 2 of a weft knittedfabric before and after being processed with a shearing treatment. Thefibriform pile fabric structure 2 is fabricated by spun yarn orsynthetic filament yarn, and has erected and dispersed restrain fiberbundles 21 on a surface of the fabric. The texturing and fabricatingmeans of the restrain fiber bundles 21 are as followings: (1) knittingor weaving for fabricating a loop fabrics then shearing the top ends ofthe loop fabrics so as to fabricate the erected and dispersed restrainfiber bundles; (2) knitting or weaving for fabricating a corduroystructure, shearing the raised yarns in weft and warp direction of thecorduroy structure so as to fabricate the erected and dispersed restrainfiber bundles; and (3) knitting or weaving for fabricating adouble-layer structure, cutting the double-layer structure into twofabrics, then the erected and dispersed restrain fiber bundles will beon the surface of each fabric.

In addition, the micro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 and thefibriform pile fabric structure 2 can be fabricated on a knitted orwoven double-face loop structure for respectively fabricating orsynchronously existing on different surfaces of the fabric.

Moreover, the fibers of the restrain fiber bundles 21 can be processedwith a thermal treatment in an environment of 140˜190 Celsius degree,especially 160˜170 Celsius degree, for obtaining a more loosened andslightly curved fiber bundles, thereby being more easily to be fastenedby the micro-fibriform loops 11 of the micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure 1. The restrain fiber bundles 21 has a height of 1 mm˜5 mm,preferably to be 2 mm˜4 mm. As such, the aforesaid weaving andfabricating means of the fibriform pile fabric structure 2 enables therestrain fiber bundles 21 to provide a function similar to the hooks ofa conventional VELCRO tape.

As mentioned above, the fabrication means of the fastening fabricstructure provided by the present invention is weaving or knitting, ifan essential fabric structure 3 of the fastening fabric is added withelastic fibers, such as the elastic fibers under the trademark of Lycra,the elasticity of the fastening fabric structure can be increased,thereby more suitable being applied for the purpose of wrapping andbonding for a protection equipment.

As mentioned above, the fibriform pile fabric structure 2 and themicro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 can be respectively fabricatedon two different fabrics, and a high molecular elastic film can beprovided between the two fabrics, so through adhering back to back, ahighly-elastic fabric with its front and rear sides being able to adherewith each other can be fabricated, thereby providing a stronger bondingand restraining function.

In practice, when the fibriform pile fabric structure 2 and themicro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 are in contact face to face, theplural erected restrain fiber bundles 21 of the fibriform pile fabricstructure 2 are fastened and restrained by the micro-fibriform loops 11fabricated after the micro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 beingprocessed with the fiber splitting treatment, so there is a largefriction force generated for forming an adhering and fastening state,thereby achieving the adhering and fastening effect similar to theeffect provided by the conventional VELCRO tapes.

In addition, the micro-fibriform loop fabric structure 1 and thefibriform pile fabric structure 2 of the fastening fabric structureprovided by the present invention can be altered and applied todifferent purposes according to the actual needs. As shown in FIG. 3,which is a schematic view illustrating a woven double-face loop fabricwherein the micro-fibriform loops 11 and the restrain fiber bundles 21being fabricated on opposite surfaces of the same fabric; or as shown inFIG. 4, which is a schematic view illustrating a woven single-face loopfabric, wherein the micro-fibriform loops 11 and the restrain fiberbundles 21 being provided and dispersed at different locations on thesame surface of the same fabric; or as shown in FIG. 5, which is aschematic view illustrating a woven single-face loop fabric wherein themicro-fibriform loops 11 and the restrain fiber bundles 21 beingfabricated on two different fabrics, and the two fabrics can be bondedto a fabric with its front and rear sides being able to adhere with eachother through bonding the two fabrics back to back.

One feature of the fastening fabric structure provided by the presentinvention is that the restrain fiber bundles 21 of the fibriform pilefabric structure 2 utilize erected non-hook fibers having the dimensionaround 3 deniers contained in the 50˜300 deniers yarn to replace themonofilament hooks of conventional VELCRO tapes having the dimensionaround 325 deniers; the micro-fibriform loops 11 of the micro-fibriformloop fabric structure 1 are erected and protruded from the surface of afabric, and utilize micro-fiber loops having the dimension around 0.1denier contained in the 50˜200 deniers yarn to replace the monofilamentloops having the dimension around 20 deniers of the conventional VELCROtapes. Therefore, the dimension of the restrain fiber bundles 21 of thepresent invention is about 100 times smaller than the hooks of aconventional VELCRO tapes, and the density of the restrain fiber bundles21 is 275 times greater than the hooks of the conventional VELCRO tapes;the dimension of the micro fibers of the micro-fibriform loop 11provided by the present invention is 200 times smaller than the loops ofthe conventional VELCRO tapes, and the density of the micro-fibriformloops 11 is 150 times greater than the loops of the conventional VELCROtapes. Thus, the softness and fiber dimension of the fastening fabricstructure provided by the present invention are substantially the sameas fabrics used in daily life, and through the large amount of microfibers generating the high-strength adhering and fastening force, thepresent invention provides a fabric having the adhering and fasteningfunction without needs of additional adhesion or fasten units.

Therefore, by adopting the present invention, the advantages and effectscan be achieved are:

(1) The thickness of the fastening fabric structure is greatly reduced,especially the micro-fibriform loops of the micro-fibriform loop fabricstructure are fabricated by micro fibers, thereby achieving extreme thinin dimension.

(2) The fastening fabric structure forms the loops and pile directly onthe surface of fabrics without base cloth or base substrate, because thefastening fabric itself is a soft texture equipped with adhering andfastening function, with the softness and adhering capability providedby the fabric itself, when being used in a band strip, the strongadhesion is continuously provided during the binding and wrappingprocess, so a complete adhering effect is provided, and slides areprevented between the binding and wrapping layers, thereby providing afirmer and more stable binding and wrapping effect and also providingcomfort.

(3) The dimension of the restrain fiber bundles fabricated on thefastening fabric structure is similar to nature cotton fiber, especiallymicro-fibriform loop is much smaller than existed nature cotton fiber,so the user would not feel irritated on his/her skin and foreignarticles inserting or falling within fabrics is prevented, or otherclothes or fabrics are protected from being damaged when washed andrinsed together with the fastening fabric.

(4) The restrain fiber bundles of the fibriform pile fabric structure ofthe fastening fabric structure are erected and non-hook fibers, so themicro-fibriform loops of the micro-fibriform loop fabric structure areprevented from being damaged when being mutually adhered; and therestrain fiber bundles and the micro-fibriform loops allows evendistribution of force through the whole contact surface area of surfaceand enhancing the fastening power and the durability of the fasteningfabric structure, and meeting the essential requirement of repeated usefor environmental-friendly materials.

(5) The restrain fiber bundles and the micro-fibriform loops of thefastening fabric structure can be respectively fabricated on the frontand rear sides of one single fabric, so not only the thickness can bereduced, the softness of the fastening fabric structure can also begreatly improved, and the fastening fabric structure is equipped with anexcellent water absorbing property, thereby being able to be fabricatedto products such like a scarf, shawl and towel which can be freelyadhered.

(6) The fastening fabric structure can be made in a very similar or eventhe same way as making an ordinary cloth, and the shape thereof can befreely tailored and equipped with whole-surface fastening without anyother closure means; when used as band strip, one single piece of bandstrip can be used to warp different parts of the body; due to a widerange of fastening application, the invention is a breakthrough infastening fabric industry.

Various modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forthherein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which theseinventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in theforegoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is tobe understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specificexamples of the embodiments disclosed and that modifications and otherembodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appendedclaims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in ageneric and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

1. A fastening fabric structure, comprising: a micro-fibriform loopfabric structure having micro-fibriform loops erected and protruded fromthe surface of said fabric, said micro-fibriform loops being fabricatedby complex, textured micro-fiber yarn and processed with a fibersplitting treatment for splitting into more and smaller micro fibers, sosaid micro fibers being enabled to form erected and loosenmicro-fibriform loops on the surface of said fabric; a fibriform pilefabric structure having erected and dispersed restrain fiber bundles onthe surface of said fabric, said restrain fiber bundles being fabricatedby spun yarn or synthetic filament yarns to form fibriform loops thenprocessed with a shearing treatment; when said fibriform pile fabricstructure and said micro-fibriform loop fabric structure being incontact, said erected restrain fiber bundles being fastened andrestrained by said micro-fibriform loops thereby forming an adhering andfastening effect.
 2. The fastening fabric structure as claimed in claim1, wherein the height of said micro-fibriform loops is 1 mm˜5 mm, andthe height of said restrain fiber bundles is 1 mm˜5 mm.
 3. The fasteningfabric structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the height of saidmicro-fibriform loops is 2 mm˜3 mm, and the height of said restrainfiber bundles is 2 mm˜4 mm.
 4. The fastening fabric structure as claimedin claim 1, wherein said restrain fiber bundles are fabricated byerected non-hook fibers having the dimension of 3 deniers; and saidmicro-fibriform loops are fabricated by micro-fiber loops having thedimension of 0.1 denier.
 5. The fastening fabric structure as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said micro fibers adopt two different high molecularmaterials for becoming complex fibers by complex spinning, and saidfiber splitting treatment utilizes a chemical method to remove one ofthe materials and allow the other material to be individually remained.6. The fastening fabric structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidmicro-fibriform loop fabric structure are knitted or woven loop fabricsmade of said micro fibers of complex fibers being processing with saidfiber splitting treatment for fabricating loosen micro-fibriform loops.7. The fastening fabric structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidfibriform pile fabric structure are knitted or woven loop fabricsfabricated by spun yarn or synthetic filament yarns with the top ends ofsaid loops being sheared to form erected and dispersed fibers on thesurface of said fabric.
 8. The fastening fabric structure as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said restrain fiber bundles of said fibriform pilefabric structure are knitted or woven corduroy fabrics fabricated byspun yarn or synthetic filament yarns wherein said corduroy structurebeing sheared in weft or warp direction to form erected and dispersedfiber bundles on the surface of said fabric.
 9. The fastening fabricstructure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said fibriform pile fabric madeof a knitted or woven double-layer structure fabricated by spun yarn orsynthetic filament yarns is cut into two fabrics and one side of saidtwo fabrics being sheared to provide said erected and dispersed fiberbundles of fibriform pile.
 10. The fastening fabric structure as claimedin claim 1, wherein said micro-fibriform loops and said restrain fiberbundles are fabricated on different surfaces of said same fabric. 11.The fastening fabric structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidmicro-fibriform loops and said restrain fiber bundles are fabricated atdifferent locations on the same surface of a fabric.
 12. The fasteningfabric structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said micro-fibriformloops and said restrain fiber bundles are fabricated on two differentpieces of fabrics.
 13. The fastening fabric structure as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said micro-fibriform loops and said restrain fiberbundles are fabricated on two different pieces of fabrics that arebonded together to form a double-sided self-adhered fastening fabric.14. The fastening fabric structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein saidmicro-fibriform loops and said restrain fiber bundles are fabricated ontwo different pieces of fabrics and a high molecular elastic film isbonded therebetween to form a high elastic power and double-sidedself-adhered fastening fabric.
 15. The fastening fabric structure asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said restrain fiber bundles of saidfibriform pile fabric structure are fabricated to erected and loosen andslightly-curved fibers by a thermal treatment in an environment of140˜190 Celsius degree.
 16. The fastening fabric structure as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said micro fibers contain thermal shrinking fibers. 17.The fastening fabric structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein theelastic fibers are added in the essential fabric structure of saidfastening fabric.